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Sequoia Family Therapy

Couples Therapy

Facing Illness Together

A serious diagnosis, a chronic illness, an injury, or infertility changes more than the body. Routines, roles, money, intimacy, and plans for the future can all shift at once. One partner may become a caregiver overnight. The other may feel like a burden, or like a patient instead of a partner.

There is often grief in this, even when no one has died: grief for the life you expected and the way things used to be. Partners don’t always grieve at the same pace, and that difference can create distance right when you need each other most.

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What it can look like

  • A diagnosis or injury has changed daily life for one or both of you
  • Caregiving has crowded out being partners
  • One of you wants to talk about it and the other can’t
  • You’re grieving plans, abilities, or a future that changed
  • Medical appointments and decisions are causing conflict
  • Intimacy has changed and it’s hard to talk about

How we work on it

We combine Emotionally Focused Therapy with medical family therapy, an approach that looks at how a diagnosis affects the whole relationship: your roles, your routines, your intimacy, and how you lean on each other, not only the person who is sick.

Together we make space to grieve what has changed, notice how stress and fear are showing up between you, and help each partner say what they need. We look at the practical pressures too: new roles, medical decisions, and how to stay a couple and not only a care team.

The aim is to face what’s happening side by side, with room for both of your experiences.

Approaches we use

  • Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
  • Medical family therapy

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Wondering if this fits what you’re going through?

A free 15-minute consultation is a good place to ask. We’ll talk about what’s going on and whether we’re a good fit.

Book your free 15-min consultation